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I 


SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 


SPEECH 

OP 

HON. GEORGE W. .TOLTAN, OF INDIANA, 

DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY IG, 186G. . 

a 


Tho House having under consideration the bill 
extending the right of suffrage in tho District of 
Columbia— 

Mr. -lULIAN said: 

]Mr. Speaker: Whatever doiibt.s may arise 
as to the authority of Congress to regulate 
the right of suffrage in the districts lately in 
revolt, none can exist as to such authority 
within the District of Columbia. By the ex¬ 
press words of the Constitution, Congress here 
has “ exclusive power of legislation and that 
power, of course, extends to all the legitimate 
subjects of legislation, of which the ballot is 
uncpiestionably one. Shall it be conferred, 
irrespective of color, or granted only to white 
men ? 'Shall Congress recognize the equal rights 
of all men in the metropolis of the nation and 
the territory under its exclusive control, or must 
OTir national policy still be inspired by that con¬ 
tempt for tho negro which caused slavery, and 
finally gave birth to the horrid war from which we 
have just emerged? tShall the nation, through 
its'chosen servants, stand^lSy the .principle of 
taxation aircZ representation for which our fath¬ 
ers fought in the beginning, or reenact its guilty 
compact with aristocracy and caste ? This is 
the question, variously stated, which confronts 
us in the bill before the House. It must now 
be dealt with upon its merits. To attempt to 
postpone or evade it is to trifle with the dangers 
and duties of the hour, and forget all the terri¬ 
ble lessons of the past. 

Mr. 8peaker, I demand the ballot for the col¬ 
ored men of this District on the broad ground 
of absolute right. I repudiate the political 
Iiilosophy which treats the right of suffrage as 
merely conventional. 4 The right of a man to a 
.voice in the Government which deals with his 
liberty, his property, and his life, is as natural, 
i a? inborn, as any one of those enumerated by 
jour fathers.'J’It is said,' I know, that natural 
, rights are only those universal ones which exist 
' n a sUitc of nature, in which every man takes his 


defense and protection into his own hands; but 
I answer that there is no such state of nature, 
save in the dreams of speculative writers. The 
natural state of man is a state of society, which 
demands law, government, as the condition of 
its life. fBy the right of suffrage I mean the 
right to a share in the governing power; and 
while the peculiar manner and circumstances 
of its exercise may fairly be regp,rded as con¬ 
ventional, tho right is natural, p If not, then 
there are no natural rights, since none could 
be enjoyed except by the favor or grace of the 
Government, which must decide for itself who 
shall be permitted to share in its exercise. You 
may, if 3''ou choose, call the right of suffrage a 
I natural social right; but whatever adjectives 
you employ in your definition, the right, I in¬ 
sist, is natural. Most certainly it is so in its pri¬ 
mary sense. My friend from Iowa [Mr. Wil¬ 
son] substantially agrees with me, for he speaks 
of suffrage, not as a but as a right, 

equally sacred with those acknowledged to be 
natural, and which Government cannot take 
away. 'iSir, without the ballot no man is really 
free, because if he enjoys freedom it is by tho 
permission of those who govern, and not in vir¬ 
tue of his own recognized manhood.-j.. We talk 
about the natural right of all men to life, to 
liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness; but if 
one race of men can rightfully disfranchise an¬ 
other, and govern them at will, what becomes ' 
of their natural rights? The moment you ad¬ 
mit such a principle the very idea of democracy 
is renounced, and absolutism must own you as 
its disciple. The fact that society, through Gov¬ 
ernment as its agent, regulates the right, and 
withholds it in certain instances, as in the case 
of infants and idiots, and makes the withdr/ : ■ 
of it a punishment for crime in others, doe' 
at all contravene the ground I assume, 
ciety, for its own protection, takes awa;, • 
natural rights, or rather, it declares them • ■ 
feited on certain prescribed conditions.' C k 








tianity and civilization place their brand npon_ 
slavery as a violation of the natural rights of 
men. But that system of personal servitude 
from which we have finally been delivered is 
only one type of slavery. Serfdom is another. 
'Jdiat unnatural ownership of labor by capital 
which grinds the toiling millions of the Old 
World, and renders life itself a curse, is not 
less at war with natural rights than negro sla¬ 
very. The degrees of slavery may vary, but 
the real test of freedom is the right to a share 
in the governing power. Judge Humphrey, 
speaking of the freedmen, says “there is really 
no difference, in my opinion, whether we hold 
them as absolute slaves or obtain their labor 
by some other method.” The' old slavehold- 

» ers understand this perfectly. x\n intelligent 
' human being, absolutely subject to the Oov- 
ernment under which he lives, answerable to 
it in his person and property for disobedience, 
and yet denied any political rights Avhatever, 
is a slave. He may not wear the collar of 
any single owner, but he will be what Carl 
Schurz aptly calls ‘ ‘ the slave of society,” which 
is often a less merciful tyrant! He will owe 
to the mere grace of the Government the right 
to marry and rear a family; the right to sue 
for any grievance ; the right to own a home in 
the Avide world; the right to the means of ac¬ 
quiring knowledge; the right of free locomotion 
and to pursue his oavii hapjDiness; the right to a 
fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work; the right 
to life itself, save on conditions to be fixed with¬ 
out his consent, and which may render him an 
alien and an outcast among men. So abject and 
humiliating is such a condition, and so perfectly 
does the world understand the sacredness of the 
rights of the citizen, that in all free G overnments 
his disfranchisement is appropriately made a 
part of the punishment for high crimes. Sir, 
ft repeat it, there is no freedom, no security 
against wrong and outrage, save in the ballot ; 
and Governor Brownlow is therefore thoroughly 
right in principle, in contending that the con¬ 
stitutional amendment abolishing slavery, and 
giving Congress the power, by appropriate legis¬ 
lation, to enforce this abolition, authorizes us 
to secure the ballot to all men in the revolted 
districts, irrespective of color-.y It is not slavery 
in form, but in fact, and under whatever name, 
that the people of the United States intend to 
have abolished forever. 

^ If I am right in this view, color has nothing 
whatever to do with the question of suffrage, as 
the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. KassonJ will 
see. The f^egro should not be disfranchised 
because he is black, nor the white man allowed 
to vote because he is white. Both should have 
the ballot because they are men and citizens, 
and require it for their protection.^kAre you 
willing to rest your right to the ballot on the 
purely contingent fact of your color? Your 
manhood tells you instantly that that is not the 
foundation. You are a man, endowed with all 
1 •; Ights of a man, and therefore you demand 
■ • ce in the Government; but when you say 
br-i you assert the equal rights of the^gro. 


jSfeither color, nor race, nor a certain amount . 
bf property, nor any other mere accident of , / 
pumanity, can justify one portion of the people ’ 
in stripping another portion of their equal rights 
before the law, the common master over all.*^ 
Government, in fact, in its proper, American 
sense, is simply the agent and representative 
of the governed, in taking care of their interest 
and guarding their rights. It is not the con¬ 
cern of the few, nor of the many, but of all. 

The ^egro, doubtless, would have been born 
w'hite if he could have been consulted; and to 
take from him his inherent rights as a man 
because of his complexion is a political ab¬ 
surdity as monstrous as its injustice is mean 
and revolting. When you do it, you aim a 
deadly stab at the vital principle of all dem¬ 
ocracy. And if you may disfranchise theltegro 
to-day on account of his race, or color, you may 
disfranchise the Irishman to-morrow, and the ^ 
German the next day ; and then, jterhaps, you * 
will be prepared to strike down the laboring 
man, the “mudsill,” adopting the Virginia phi¬ 
losophy, that “filthy operatives” and “greasy 
mechanics” are unfit for political power. No 
absurdity or wickedness can be too great for a 
people who could thus deliberately sin against 
the great primal truths of democracy; and the 
logical consequence of the first false step, of any 
departure whatever from the ride Avhicli makes 
manhood alone the test of right, must be to con¬ 
tinually narroAV the basis of popular power till 
the end shall be a remorseless aristocracy or 
an absolute despotism. 

Mr. Speaker, this view of suffrage as a nat¬ 
ural right greatly simplifies the whole subject. 

The sole question is, as already stated, whether 
our democratic theory of Government shall be 
maintained in practically recognizing the in¬ 
herent rights of all men as the source and basis 
of political power?" To ask this question, in 
the United States, is to ansAver it. And pub¬ 
lic policy, adso, ansAvers the (question in the 
interest of the broadest radicalism. Duty and 
advantage Avill be found hand in hand in any ^ 
fairly tested experiment of equal suffrage. Ac¬ 
cording to the census returns of 1800, the 
colored population of this District Avas then 
over fourteen thousand. It is noAv estimated 
at about tAventy thousand. The value of real 
and personal property OAimed by them is 
at least $1,225,000. They OAvn tAventy-one 
churches, supported at a cost of over $20,000 
per annum. The whole number of their com¬ 
municants is 4,300, with an aAmrage attendance 
of 9,000, distributed among their ovm religious 
communities, and among tfc Catholic and Epis¬ 
copal churches of their white felloAv-citizens. 
They have twenty Sabbath schools, Avith from 
three to four thousand scholars, .and thirty-three 
day schools, attended by over four thousand 
scholars in the month of last November. Four 
thousand of the colored people can read and 
write. They subscribe for 1,250 copies of the 
National Republican, and about 3,000 cop¬ 
ies of the Daily and Sunday Chronicle. There 
are more than thirty benevolent, literary, and 















3 


civic organizations among them, by which their 
needy, superannuated, and infirm are cared for 
to a large extent, the city government having 
s-none or very few colored paupers to support. 
They furnished three full regiments for the na¬ 
tional service, numbering in all 3,540, and from 
sixty to seventy per cent, of the drafts in the Dis¬ 
trict were composed of drafted colored soldi ers or 
substitutes. This, sir, is the character and con¬ 
dition of a class in this cornmmunity ninety per 
cent, of whom were slaves at the beginning of 
the war, or their immediate descendants, many 
of them having purchased their own freedom 
and that of their families, and are besides prop¬ 
erty holders to a considerable extent. /Sir, I 
call this a good record, if not a proud onq. These 
people are here, and they will remain here, either 
. as the friends or the enemies of the Government, 
(^f we shall give them their rights—a stake in so- 
• ciety, an eqyal chance with the white man to 
light the battle of life—instead of becoming an 
element of weakness and a source of danger 
they will be found our allies and friends, and 
thus lend unity and strength to the Government. 4 
If we shall continue to disfranchise and degrade 
them, we shall make them aliens, domestic foes 
in our midst, a perpetual menace of danger and 
discord, from which we shall suffer quite as much 
as the party thus wronged by our cruel folly. 
As a matter of mere policy, therefore, wholly 
aside from the question of right, I would give 
the ballot to every colored man of competent 
age in the District; and had I the power I would 
secure to him a home on the soil he has so long 
(watered by his tears. I proposed this policy 
lor the revolted States in a measure I had the 
honor to report to this House two years ago, 
providing for homesteads on the forfeited and 
confiscated lands of rebels; and had it prevailed 
in the Senate, as it did in this body, it v/ould 
have Avrought out the only true reconstruc¬ 
tion of government and society in the South. 
The great Avant of eA-ery poor man is a home, 
along Avith the ballot Avith Avhich to defend it. 
Russia, in giving freedom to her millions of serfs, 
secured to each one of them a homestead. Our 
policy should be the same. In the history of 
the Avorld the ballot has generally followed the 
granting of homesteads to the poor; but the 
poor now should have the ballot as the surest 
means of attaining the homestead. Sir, there 
is but one remedy for the appalling picture 
recently presented by John Bright, of five mil¬ 
lion families in the United Kingdom who are 
unrepresented in Parliament, and whose utter 
helplessness, poverty, and degradation appeal 
in vain to the English aristocracy. That rem¬ 
edy, as righteously due these voiceless millions 
as the sunlight, is the ballot. That Avould ‘ ‘ bend 
the poAvers of statesmanship to the high and 
holy purposes of humanity and justice,” and at 
last make sure to the lowliest the blessed sanc¬ 
tuary of a home upon the soil, which is among 
the natural rights to secure which “Govern¬ 
ments are instituted among men.” In our 
OAvn more favored country the ballot and the 
homestead may go together, and should be 


conferred at once. In the five great landed 
States of the South there yet remain about fifty 
million acres of public land unsold, all of which, 
if not prevented by laAv, Avill be open to rebel 
speculators. This should be set apart at once 
for actual homesteads in limited quantities, and 
a bill providing for this is now before the Com¬ 
mittee on Public Lands. Every landless freed- 
man in the country, should this measure pre¬ 
vail, will have at least a chance to become a 
freeholder, and thus to unite his destiny to the 
Government as its friend. This, or some kin¬ 
dred measure, is rendered absolutely necessary 
by the unfortunate failure of the policy of con¬ 
fiscation, and by what seems to me the criminal 
action of the Government in restoring to fla¬ 
gitious rebels, through pardons and otherwise, 
the vast and valuable lands which had vested 
in the nation through their treason, and are so 
greatly needed and have been so justly earned 
by the freedmen. Sir, no other policy than that 
of justice and equal rights can be trusted in 
dealing with these long-suffering people. In¬ 
stead of driving them to thriftlessness and A'aga- 
bondism. I would bind them to the Government 
through its parental care for their welfare. Let 
us give them the ballot; and then, should a 
public grievance come, they will bear it cheer¬ 
fully, as self-imposed. They will bide their 
time, in the hope that at a future election the 
remedy will be found. “I can conceive no 
greater social evil,” says Governor Parsons, 
of Alabama, ‘ ‘ than a class of humanity in our 
midst so excluded from the social pale as to 
become a stagnant, seething, miasmatic, moral 
cesspool in the community. Human nature 
cannot improve Avithout the moral incentive 
of hope in a human future.” The policy of 
education, of moral development, can alone 
secure the just rights and the highest good of 
all races; and if the rulers of other countries 
Avere wise, they would.apply this truth in deal¬ 
ing with their discontented and dangerous popu¬ 
lation. “Each class in England,” says the 
Westminster RevieAv, “ as it has, by the natural 
progress of civilization, in time advanced to a 
consciousness of its own condition, and a com¬ 
parison betAveen itself and others, has in turn 
demanded to be admitted to a share in the 
Government. Each in turn has been admit¬ 
ted, and the country has grown more and 
more powerful, and the population more con¬ 
tented, as the basis of freedom has gone doAvn 
loAver and spread out wider.” Sir, 1 trust this 
lesson of English history, slowly evolved, and 
noAV held up to us by English radicals, will not 
be slighted in dealing Avith the question of ne¬ 
mo enfranchisement in our OAvn country. 

^ Mr. Speaker, if it shall be objected that the 
negroes of this District are not fit to vote; 'that 
they are too ignorant and degraded to be in¬ 
trusted with poAver, I have several replies to 
make. ^ 

In the first place, the dbgroes of this District 
are not all ignorant,- as I have already shoAvn 
by facts. Many of them are educated and 
quite intelligent. The larger class Avho are not 














4 


SO will not su.Ter ])y a comparison with the 
very large class of their ignorant white neigh¬ 
bors. The ‘‘rounders'’ and ruffians who in¬ 
stigate mobs against harmless and ])eaceable 
colored people, and then publish their deeds as 
a (iegro insurrection, and who have probably 
been on the side of the rebels, in sympathy or in 
fact, during the Avhole of the war, are not 
the most fit men in the world for the ballot. 
They vote, and there is no proposition from any 
quarter to disfranchise them. The policy of 
Massachusetts, referred to yesterday by the gen- \ 
tleman from Iowa, [Mr. Kassox,] would leave 
them untouched. I commend this fact to all 
the fair-minded opponents of negro suffrage. 

In the next place, fftness is a relative term. 

\ Nobody is perfectly lit to vote, because nobody 
is perfectly informed as to all the subjects of 
our legislation and policy. Of the millions in 
our land who regularly go to the polls and pass 
upon the gravest questions, how many could 
stand even a tolerable examination on political 
economy, or constitutional law, or political eth¬ 
ics? How many men of good sense and fair in¬ 
telligence could give a well-defined reason even 
for some of their most decided opinions? The 
truth is, all men are more or less unfit to vote, 
as all men are more or less unfit to discharge 
all their duties, civil, social, religious, or what 
not. The political opinions and actions of the 
generality of men, who in a free country govern, 
are not guided by logic, or any exact knowledge, 
but l)y habit and tradition, by their social rela¬ 
tions, and by th^ir natural trust in those whom 
they think wiser than themselves. On this sub¬ 
ject the highest authority of which I have any 
knowledge is John Stuart Mill. He says: 

“ It is not necessary that the many should, in them¬ 
selves, be perfectly wise; it is sufficientif they be duly 
sensible of the value of superior wisdom. It is suf¬ 
ficient if they be aware that the majority of political 
questions turn upoh considerations of which they 
and all other personsnot trainedfor thepixrposemust 
necessarily be very imperfect judges, and that their 
judgment must, in general, be exercised upon the 
characters and talents of the persons whom they ap¬ 
point to decide those questions for them, rather than 
upon the questions themselves. This implies no 
greater wisdom in the people than the very ordinary 
wisdom of knoAving what things they are and are not 
sufiicient judges of. If the bulk of any people pos¬ 
sess a fair share of this wisdom, the argument for uni¬ 
versal suffrage, so far as respects that people, is irre¬ 
sistible.” 

Sir, by this standard I am willing to have 
the colored people of this District fried ; and 
I demand the same trial for the Avhite men Avho 
are loudest in their protest against negro ballots. 

. Mr. GARFIELD. I desire to ask the gen¬ 
tleman wdiether, in his reference to the opinion 
of John Stuart Mill, he quotes that distinguished 
writer as in favor of unqualified suffrage ? 

Mr. JULIAN. No, sir. I quoted from him^ 
simply to show his opinion as to the measure 
of intelligence deemed by him necessary to qual¬ 
ify men for suffrage. I quoted the extract be¬ 
cause it sustains the point I am arguing. 

Mr. GARFIELD. I did not ask the question 
with a view of opposing any doctrine the gen¬ 
tleman is advocating, but merely to suggest that 
Mr. Mill, in the volume from which the gentle¬ 


man has just quoted, takes strong ground in 
favor of suffrage restricted by educational quali¬ 
fications. 

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I understand ray 
colleague to base his argument in favor of negro 
suffrage in the District of Columbia upon the 
personal right ol’ suffrage. I desire to ask my 
colleague wdiether he regards that as a ])ersonal 
right elsewhere than in the District of Colum¬ 
bia : and whether, as a citizen of Indiana, where, 
it is notorious, negroes have not for years past 
been permitted to migrate, he is willing to ex¬ 
tend that right to his own State? 

Mr. JULIAN. I shall refer to that question 
presently; and answer it, I think, to the satis¬ 
faction of my colleague. 

Mr. Speaker, mere knowledge, education, in 
its ordinary sense, Avill not fit any man to vote. It 
must depend, as Dr. Lieber says, upon hoAv men 
use it. He declares it to be no guarantee for 
free institutions, and refers to Prussia, the best- 
educated country in the world, where liberty is 
an outlaw. The reading and Avriting test, so 
strenuously urged on this floor, is a singularly 
insufficient measure of fitness. Reading and 
writing are mechanical processes, and a man may 
be able to perform them wdthout any Avorthincss 
of life or character. He may lack this qualifi¬ 
cation, and yet be tolerably fit to have a voice 
in the Government. If penmanship must be 
made the avenue to the ballot, I fear several 
honorable gentlemen on this floor Avill be dis¬ 
franchised. A merely educational test Avould 
allow all the rebel leaders to vote, Avhile the 
great body of the people of tlie South, Avhite and i 
colored, would be disfranchised. Sir, educa¬ 
tion of the heart is far more important than 
that of the brain. ‘‘ The soul is greater than 
logic.” The hearts of the negroes have been 
unfalteringly with us all through the Avar, inspir¬ 
ing their judgment, vivifying their convictions, 
and insuring their universal loyalty. They, of 
all men in the South, haAm best \dndicated their 
title to the ballot. 

Mr. Speaker, our American democracy has 
never required any standard of knowledge as 
a condition of suffrage: and the educational 
^est, invented by the KnoAv-Nothitigs some 
years ago, during their raid against the for¬ 
eigners, Avould not now be thought of but for 
our proverbial hatred of the negro. Accord¬ 
ing to our census tables, more than a half mil¬ 
lion men in our country annually go to the 
polls Avho can neither read the Constitution nor 
Avrite their names. The proposition to disfran¬ 
chise this grand army of ignorant men Avoxild 
meet Avith very little faA'or in any quarter. No 
public man dreams of it, and any such purjoose as 
to the ignorant white men of this District is ex¬ 
pressly disaAmwed by the adAmcates of restricted 
suflrage in this House. Sir, the real trouble is 
that loe hate the negro. It is not his ignorance 
that offends us, but his color ; for those avIio are 
loudest in their opposition to uniAmrsal suffrage 
Avould be quite as unAviliing to give the ballot 
to Frederick Douglass as to the most ignorant 
freedman in the South. Of this fact I enter- 










tain no doubt whatever, and I commend it to 
the attention of conservative gentlemen on this 
floor, who imagine that a vote for qualified ne- i 
gro suffrage will be less offensive to their negro- ( 
hating constituents than for tlie bill now under ! 
discussion. | 

_ In further reply to the argument which would : 
disfranchise the negroes on account of their j 
ignorance, allow me to say that the ruling class 1 
have made them ignorant by generations of op- i 
prcssion, and no man should be allowed to take I 
advantage of his own wrong. Sir, how can the 
negro emerge from his ignorance and barbarism 
if left under the heel of his old t5Tant? I agree 
that in any scheme of universal suffrage univer¬ 
sal knowledge, as far as possible, should be de¬ 
manded; but imiversal svff'rage is one of the 
surest means of securing a higher level of intel¬ 
ligence for the lohole people. I would not level 
the educated classes downward, but the ignor¬ 
ant masses upward, by giving them political 
power and the incentive to rise. Our first duty 
is to take off' their chains, as the best means of 
preparing them for the ballot. By no means 
■would 1 disparage education, and especially po¬ 
litical training; but the ballot is itself a school¬ 
master. If you expect a man to use it well you 
mu.st place it in his hands, and let liim learn to 
cast it by trial. If you wish to teach a man to 
swim, you must first put him in the water. If 
you Avish to teach him hoAv to handle the tools 
of the ig ^-chanic. you must first put them in his 
handsX^f }mu AAush to teach the ignorant man, 
black o^?hite, Iioav to vote, you must grant him 
the right to vote as the first step in his educa¬ 
tion. The negro,am sure, Avill generally be 
found voting on the side of his country, and 
gradually learning his duties as a citizen. Sir, 
let one rule be adopted for Avhite and black, and 
let us, if possible, dispossess our minds, utterly, 
of the vile spirit of caste which has brought upon 
our country all its woesj 
Idr. Speaker, I reply still further, that my 
argument is not at all invalidated if I admit that 
the AA’hite people of this District are decidedly 
superior to the negroes in education and gen¬ 
eral intelligence. This very superiority Avould 
ghm them an important adA^antage over the class 
not thus favored. It would become a poAverful 
weapon in carrying out their peculiar jDurposes; 
and tliese Avill certainly be antagonistic to the j 
best good of those Avhom laAv and usage have so j 
long injured and degraded. If any class will j 
be peculiarly exposed, and need the strongest j 
safeguards, it Avill be the negroes, avIio have j 
been made comparative children in knoAvledge | 
and self-help. All class rule is au cions; but if! 
one class must rule another, itAvillbe found far 
better to alloAV the prerogative to the laboring 
many, Avhose usefulness and numbers best enti- j 
tie them to it, than to confer it upon the ari.stoc- ; 
racy, the “gentlemen,” the idlers, who will of | 
course maintain their privileges. The many Avho j 
have been denied equal rights, and suffered 
from the privation, Avill be quite as fit for polit¬ 
ical poAver as the feAV who have had no such 
experience. 


Mr. Speaker, I hope I need not reply to the 
argument often urged, that negi'O voting Avill 
lead to the amalgamation of races, or social 
equality, Avhicli iioav seems to mean the same 
thing. On this subject there is nothing loft to 
conjecture, and no ground for alarm. Negro 
suff'rage has Ijeen very extensively tried in this 
country, and Ave are able to appeal to facts. Ne¬ 
groes had tlie right to A'ote in all the Colonies 
save one, under the Articles of Confederation. 
They voted, I believe, generally, on the question 
of adopting the Constitution of the United 
States. They have voted eA’-er since in Ncav 
York and the Noav England States, save Con¬ 
necticut, in Avhich the practice Avas dicontinued 
in 1818. They voted in New Jersey till the year 
1840; in Virginia and Maryland till 1838; in 
Pennsylvania till 1838; in DehiAvare till 1831; 
and in North Carolina and Tennessee till 1886. 
I haA'e ncA^er understood that in all this expe¬ 
rience of negro suffrage the amalgamation of 
the races Avas the result. I think these evils 
are not at all complained of to this day in New 
England and NeAV York, Avhere negro suffrage 
is still practiced and recognized by la,Av. In¬ 
deed, the fact is notorious, that amalgamation 
is almost totally unknown, except in a state of 
slavery, Avhich obliterates the ties of life, and 
subjects the negro woman to the unbridled 
power of the master race. Sir, give the colored 
man the ballot, so that he may maintain the 
liberty already nominally conferred, and the 
best possible step Avill haA^e been taken to regu¬ 
late and purify the relations heretofore existing 
betAveen the races. vShould the copperheads 
and rebels of this District feel in danger of 
matrimony Avith their African felloAv-citizens 
in consequence of negro suffrage, I Avould have 
Congress pass a laAV for their protection; but I 
would not withhold the ballot from the colored 
peojAle for a reason so contingent,and so uncom¬ 
plimentary to their character and taste. 

Nor do I deem it necessary, iMr. Speaker, to 
dwell on the argument that negro voting will 
lead to negro office-holding, negro domination, 
and ultimately to a Avar of races. Such an ar¬ 
gument, current as it is in certain quarters, linds 
no shadow of support in any known facts. The 
experience to which I have referred certainly 
can alarm no one, and the instances are rare, 
if in fact any can be adduced, in which colored 
men have held office, though their numbers, as 
in States like Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Mary¬ 
land, Avere very large Avhen black suffrage Avas 
alloAved. Sir, no fact is more notorious, and 
at the same time more discreditable, than the 
nearly universal prejudice of the white race in 
our country against ithe negro. That prejudice 
will not pass aAvay swiftly, but gradually and 
slowly. Like every other form of injustice, it 
will ultimately die ; but the prospect of this is 
clearly not immediate. We are certainly not 
yet so in love with the negro that Ave prefer 
him as our ruler; but Avhen the fact shall bo 
realized, it will not be negro domination, but 
negro rule of choice, by white as well as black 
suffrage, and cannot therefore lead to any war 















6 


^of races. This is quite evident; for tliough 
tlie negroes here are numerous, and in ])or- 
tions of the South constitute the majorit}^, the 
tide of emigration from the North and from 
Europe must very soon place the white race 
largely in the ascendant everywhere. I present 
these considerations in order, if possible, to calm 
the fears of my conservative friends; for as to 
myself, my faith in democratic principles de¬ 
pends not at all upon any temporary or local 
results of their application. Sir, a war of races 
in this country can only be the result of deny¬ 
ing to the negro his rights, just as such wars 
have been caused elsewhere; and the late 
troubles in Jamaica should teach us, if any lesson 
can, the duty of dealing justly with our millions 
of freedmen. Like causes must produce like 
results. English law made the slaves of J amaica 
free, but England failed to enact other laws 
making their freedom a blessing. The old spirit 
of domination never died in the slave-master, 
but was only maddened by emancipation. For 
thirty years no measures were adopted tending 
to protect or educate the freedmen. At length, 
and quite recently, the colonial authorities 
passed a whij^ping act, then a law of eviction 
forpeople of color, then alawimposingheavy im¬ 
post duties, bearing most grievously upon them, 
and finally a law providing for the importation 
of coolies, thus taxing the freedmen for the 
very purpose of taking the bread out of the 
mouths of their own children! I believe it 
turns out, after all, that these outraged people 
even then did not rise up against the local gov¬ 
ernment; but the white ruffians of the island, 
goaded on by their own unchecked rapacity, and 
availing themselves of the infernal pretext of a 
black insurrection, perpetrated deeds of rapine 
and vengeance that find no parallel anywhere, 
save in the acts of their natural allies, the late 
slave-breeding rebels, against our flag. Sir, is 
there no warning here against the policy of 
leaving our freedmen to the tender mercies of 
their old masters ? Are the white rebels of this 
District any better than the Jamaica villains to 
whom I have referred? The late report of Gen¬ 
eral Schurz gives evidence of some important 
facts which will doubtless apply here. The mass 
of the white people in the South, he says, are 
totally destitute of any national feeling. The 
same bigoted sectionalism that swayed them 
prior to the war is almost universal. Nor have 
they any feeling of the enormity of treason as a 
crime. To them it is not odious, as very natur¬ 
ally it would not be, under the policy which fore¬ 
goes the punishment of traitors, and gives so 
many of them the chief places of power in the 
South. And their hatred of the negro to-day 
is as intense and scathing, and as universal as 
before the war. I believe it to be even more so. 
The proposition to educate him and elevate his 
condition is everywhere met with contempt and 
scorn. They acknowledge that slavery, as it 
once existed, is overthrown ; but the continued 
inferiority and subordination of the colored 
race, under some Ibrm of vassalage or serfdom, 
is regarded by them as certain. Sir, they have 


no thought of anything else ; and if the ballot 
shall be withheld from the freedmen after the 
withdrawal of military power, the most revolt¬ 
ing forms of oppression and outrage will be 
practiced, resulting, at last, in tliat very war 
of races which is foolishly apprehended as the 
effect of giving the negro his rights. 

Mr. Speaker, a more plausible, if not a more 
formidable, objection to nep’o suffrage in this 
District remains to be noticed. Most of the 
northern States refuse the ballot to their col¬ 
ored citizens, and even deny them their testi¬ 
mony in suits in which white persons are j^arties. 
In Indiana,which has done so noble and glori¬ 
ous a part in the war, we have a constitutional 
provision, and laws made in pursuance of it, Ijy 
which negroes from other sections of our coun¬ 
try are forbidden to enter the State. It is made 
a penal offense for any negro or mulatto to come 
into her borders, or for any white person to bring 
him in, or employ him after he shall have come. 
Nov/, how can the Ileprescntatives of such States 
be expected to vote for negro suffrage in this 
District? If Congress, having the sole and ex¬ 
clusive power of legislation here, ought to give 
the ballot to the negro, why should not Indiana 
give the ballot to her negro population? And 
how can western Representatives face their con¬ 
stituents and answer this question, after having 
supported this bill? And it is just here that its 
passage must encounter its greatest peril; for 
members of Congress, however patriotic, will 
be exceedingly glad to escape this dilemitia, and 
to avoid the committal to the policy of negro 
suffrage generally, which would seem to be im¬ 
plied in the support of this measure. 

In seeking to meet this difficulty several con¬ 
siderations must be borne in mind. In the first 
place^ the demand for negro suffrage in this 
District rests not alone upon the general ground 
of right, of democratic equality, but upon pecu¬ 
liar reasons superinduced by the late war, which 
make it an immediate practical issue, involving 
not merely the welfare of the colored man but 
the safety of society itself. If civil government 
is to be revived at all in the South, it is per¬ 
fectly self-evident that the loyal men there must 
vote; but the loyal men are the negroes, aiid 
the disloyal are the whites. To put back the 
governing power into the hands of the very men 
who brought on the war, and exclude those who 
have proved themselves the true friends of the 
country, would be utterly suicidal and atro¬ 
ciously unjust. ^ Negro suffrage in the districts 
lately in revolt is thus a present political neces: 
sity, dictated by the selfishness of the white 
loyalist as well as his sense of justice. But in 
our western States, in which the negro popula¬ 
tion is relatively small, and the prevailing senti¬ 
ment of their white people is loyal-, no such 
emergency exists. Society will not be endan¬ 
gered by the temporary postponement of the 
right of negro suffrage till public opinion shall 
render it practicable, and our western Repre¬ 
sentatives can thus vote for this Ijill Avithout 
encountering awy reasonahle hostility from their 
conservative constituents, and leaving the ques- 











7 


tion of suffrage in the loyal States to be decided 
by them on its merits. If Indiana had gone out 
of her proper jdace in the Union, and her loyal 
population had been found too weak to force her 
back into it without negro bullets and bayonets, 
and if, after thus coercing her again into her 
constitutional orbit, her loyalists had been found 
unable to hold her there without negro ballots, 
the question of negro suffrage in Indiana would 
most obviously have been very different from the 
comparatively abstract one which it now is. It 
would, it is true, have involved the question of 
justice to the negroes of Indiana, but the tran- 
scendently broader and more vital question of 
national salvation also. Let me add further, that 
should Congress pass this bill, and should the 
ballot be given to the negroes in the sunny South 
generally, tliose in our northern and western 
States, many of them at least, may return to 
their native land and its kindlier skies, and thus 
quiet the nerves of conservative gentlemen who 
dread too close a proximity to those whose 
skins, owuug to some providential oversight, 
were somehow or other not stamped with the 
true orthodox luster. 

It should be further remembered, Mr. Speaker, 
that the bill before us relates exclusively to this 
District, and those municipal and police powers 
which are to be exercised here under the laws 
of Congress. Were it in fact dangerous and 
unwise to give the negro*a voice in the general 
legislation of the countr)', I can see no objec¬ 
tion w'hatever to the experiment of black suffrage 
in this District, in the purely local administra¬ 
tion of its affairs. For very excellent reasons, 
already given, I believe the negroes here are 
entitled to the ballot, and are at least as fit as 
multitudes of white men who are unquestiona¬ 
bly to have it. They have done their full share 
in saving the nation’s life. Many of them went 
into the Army as the substitutes of white ruf¬ 
fians and vagabonds who daily ‘^damn the nig¬ 
ger,” and whose unprofitable lives were saved 
by the black column which stood between them 
and the bullets of the rebels. Sir, let the ex¬ 
periment be fairly made here, on this model 
])olitical farm of the nation. Should it fail. 
Congress will abandon it; should it work well, 
it may prove a most excellent forerunner of 
measures of larger justice to the colored race 
in our land. I do not mean to say that the col¬ 
ored soldiers of this District should alone have 
the ballot, because no such rule is proposed or 
thought of as to white voting. If the white 
rabble of this District who did not enter our 
Army, and who to a great extent were in sym¬ 
pathy with the public enemy, are to vote, as they 
undoubtedly will, it would be a very mean mock¬ 
ery of justice to withhold the ballot from loyal 
negroes who, although they did not fight, fur¬ 
nished the Government with their full share of 
men. 

Mr. Speaker, I ask conservative gentlemen 
on this floor to consider duly one other fact. 
If difficulties are to be encountered in voting 
for this bill, still greater difficulties are to be 
met in voting against it, and I know of no half 


way gr(^id in dealing with fundamental prin¬ 
ciples. ZjCo vote against this measure is to vote 
against the first truths of democratic liberty^ 
It is to vote for the old spirit of caste and the 
old law of hate which have so terribly blasted 
our land. It is to vote down justice and install 
misrule and maladministration as king. It is 
to sanction and encourage, by the national ex¬ 
ample, the barbarous and worse than heathen 
laws of the northern and western States, already 
referred to, which so loudly call for our rebuke. 
It is to make a record which the roused spirit 
of liberty and progress, and the thick-coming 
events of the future, will certainly disown and 
turn from with shame. And while such a vote 
might tend to placate the conservative and the 
trimmer, it would offend those radical hosts now 
everywhere springing to their feet, and prepar¬ 
ing for battle against every form of inequality 
and injustice, and in favor of “all rights for 
all. ’ ’ Sir, justice is safe. The right thing is the 
expedient thing. Democracy is not a lie. God 
is not the devil, “nor was Chrisiantity itself es¬ 
tablished by prize essays, Bridgewater bequests, 
and a minimum of four thousand five hundred 
a year. ” Far better Avill it be for a northern Rep¬ 
resentative and for the cause of Republicanism 
itself to vote on the right side of this question, 
even should it cost him his seat on this floor, 
than to vote on the wrong side, and thus main¬ 
tain his place by the sacrifice of both his own 
manhood and tl;ie public welfare intrusted to his 
han ds. Sir, I agree that the passage of this bill 
would tend to open the way to perfect equality 
before the law in all the States. I do noLdeny 
that the public would so understand it, and I 
decline none of the consequences of my vote. 
Mr. Jefferson, speaking of the negroes, declared 
that “whatever be their degree of talent it is no 
measure of their rights,” and he likewise de¬ 
clared that “among those who either jDay or 
fight for their country no line can be drawn.” 
That is my democracy. “ The one idea,” says 
Humboldt, “which history exhibits as ever¬ 
more developing itself into greater distinctness, 
is the idea of humanity, the noble endeavor to 
throw down all barriers erected between men 
by prejudice and one-sided views, and, by set¬ 
ting aside the distinctions of religion, country, 
and color, to treat the whole human race as one 
brotherhood.” Sir,.on this broad ground, co¬ 
incident with Christianity itself, I plant my feet; 
and no man can fail who will resolutely main¬ 
tain it. 

Mr. Speaker, I must not conclude my argu¬ 
ment without referring to one further considera¬ 
tion, by which the passage of this bill, in my 
judgment, is urgently demanded. I have ar¬ 
gued-that the ballot should be given to the ne¬ 
groes as a matter of justice to them. It should 
likewise be done as a matter of retributive 
tice to the slaveholders and rebels. According 
to the best information I can obtain, a very 
large majority of the white people of this Dis¬ 
trict have been rebels in heart during the war, 
and are rebels in heart still. That contempt 
.nd scorn of free industry which 







constituted the mainspring of the^ebellion 
cropped out here during the war in every form 
that was possible, under the immediate shadow 
of the central Government. Meaner rebels than 
many in this District could scarcely have been 
found in the Avhole land. They have not been 
punished. The halter has been cheated out of 
their necks. I am very sorry to say that under 
what seems to be a false mercy, a misapplied 
humanity, the guiltiest rebels of the war have 
thus far been allowed to escape justice. I 
have no desire to censure the authorities of 
the Government for this fact. I hope they 
have some valid excuse for their action. This 
question of punishment, I know, is a difficult 
one. The work of punishment is so vast that 
it naturally palsies the will to enter upon it. 
It never can be thoroughly done on this side 
of the grave. And were it practicable to pun¬ 
ish adequately all the most active and guilty 
rebels, justice would still remain unsatisfied. 
Far guiltier men than they are the rebel sym- 
pathij:ers of the loyal States, who coolly stood 
by and encouraged their friends in the South in 
their work of national rapine and murder, and 
while they were ever ready to go joyfully Into 
the service of the devil, were too cowardly to 
wear his uniform and carry his Aveapons in open 
day. But Congress in this District has the 
power to punish by ballot^ and there will be a 
beautiful, poetic justice in the exercise of this 
power. Sir, let it be applied. The rebels here 
will recoil from it Avith horror. Some of the 
worst of them, sooner than submit to black suf¬ 
frage, will doubtless leave the District, and thus 
render it an unspeakable service. To be voted 
doAvn and governed by Yankee and negro bal¬ 
lots Avill seem to them an intolerable grievance, 
and this is among the excellent reasons why I am 
in favor of it. If neither hanging nor exile can 
be extemporized for the entertainment of our 
domestic rebels, let us require them at least to 
make their bed on negro ballots during the re¬ 
mainder of their uiiAvorthy lives. Of course they 
Avill not relish it, but that Avill be their OAvn pecu¬ 
liar concern. Their darling institution must 
be charged Avith all the consequences of the Avar. 
They sowed the Avind, and if required must reap 
the Avhirhviud. Retribution follows Avrong 
doing ; and this law must work out its results. 
Rebels and their sympathizers, I am sure, will 
fare as Avell under negro suffrage as they deserAm, 
and I desire to leave them, as far as practicable, 
in the hands of their colored brethren. Nor 
shall I stop to inquire very critically whether 
the negroes 2 i,vefit to vote. As between them¬ 
selves and white rebels, who deserve to be 
hung, they are eminently fit. I would not have 
them more so. Will you, Mr. Speaker, will 
even my conseiwative and Democratic friends, 
be particularly nice or fastidious in the choice 
of a man to vote doAvn a rebel ? Shall we insist 
upon a perfectly finished gentleman and scholar 


to vote doAvn the traitors and Avhite trash of 
this District, Avho have recently signalized them¬ 
selves by mobbing unoffending negroes? Sir, 
almost anybody, it seems to me, Avill ansAver 
the purpose. I do not pretend that the colored ■ 
men here, should they get the ])allot, Avill not 
sometimes abuse it. They Avill undoubtedly 
make mistakes. In some cases they may CA'en 
vote on the side of their old masters.^ But 
I feel pretty safe in saying that even Avhite 
men, perfectly free from all suspicion of negro 
blood, have sometimes A^oted on the AAuong side. 
Sir, I appeal to gentlemen on this floor, and 
especially to my Democratic friends, to say I 
whether they cannot call to mind instances in j 
Avliicli Avhite men have voted Avrong ? Indeed, 
it rather strikes me that Avhite voting, igno- • 
rant, depraved, party-ridden Democratic white i 
voting, had a good deal to do in hatching into | 
life the rebellion itself, and that no results of j 
negro voting are likely to be much Avorse. I , 
respectfully commend this consideration to my 
friend from loAva, [Mr. Kassox,] and to con- j 
sei’A’ative gentlemen here on both sides of this 
Hall. Sir, as I have argued elscAvhere, all men i 
are liable to make mistakes. The democracy j 
I stand by, the fitness to govern Avhich 1 believe • 
in, is the aggregate Avisdom and practical com- ; 
mon sense of the whole people. This, and not ,, 
the Avisdom of our rulers, or of any select feAv, ' 
carried us safely through the rebellion, and this 
only can be trusted in time to come. There 
is no other reliance under God for us, as the 
champions and exemplars of Republicanism, 
and the sooner Ave bravely accept this truth the 
better it will be for all races and orders of men 
composing our great body-politic. In demand¬ 
ing the ballot in this District for the despised 
and defenseless, I simply demand the national 
recognition of Christianity, which is ‘ ‘ the root 
of all democracy, the highest fact in the rights 
of man.” I beseech gentlemen to remember 
this. As the laAvgivers of a disenthralled Re- < 
public, let us not write ‘Gnfidel” on its ban- i 
ner, by trampling humanity and justice under 
our feet in these high places of power. The 
question is ours to decide. The right, so earn¬ 
estly prayed for, is ours to bestow. The assump¬ 
tion set up by the Avhite voters here of the right to ' 
decide this question is as superlatively ridiculous 
as it is sublimely impudent. They have no more 
right to vote themselves the exclusive deposi¬ 
taries of power in this District than the inmates i 
of its penitentiary have to vote themselves at 
liberty to go at large. Congress is the sov¬ 
ereign and sole judge; and what the colored 
men here ask at our hands, for their just pro¬ 
tection, and as their sure refuge, is the ballot— 

-“ a Aveapon firmer set, 

And better than the bayonet; 

A Aveapon that eomes doAvn as still 
As snow-flakes fall upon the sod; * 

But executes a freeman’s will 
As lightning does the will of God.” 


Printed at the Congressional Globe Office. 


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